“There’s no injured reserve for bull riders,” said Chip Ridgely, the owner of Rockin’ R Western Productions, which put on the Bull Blast at the Howard County Fair Monday night, and will again on Thursday.

We took look into the life of rodeo cowboys, who travel around the country in groups for weeks on end to entertain crowds at fairs and other events. Most people are aware of how dangerous the sport can be, but few may realize what bull riders go through from day to day.

After 16 years, attendees of the Howard County Fair finally got to see some bucking bulls.

With a new event called “Bull Blast” held Monday night, the fair launched itself back into the ring with professional riders putting on a show for about 2,000 cheering fans.

“We’re going to see some spills, some falls, maybe a couple cowboys getting bucked off real good,” said Justin Howard, of Rockin “R” Western Productions, which produced the show. “We’re going to have some fun.” (Story continues below video)

Patuxent photographer Sarah Pastrana spent some time at the Howard County Fair last week, looking for its more interesting characters. With the help of photographer Jen Rynda on the editing side, they produced six video vignettes in which the photos literally come to life. Click here to see them all.

The 67th annual Howard County Fair began on Saturday, Aug. 4, at the county fairgrounds in West Friendship, and Patuxent Publishing photographer Brian Krista has been there every day. He’s captured the animals, the people and the competitions held at the fair each year. Check out more of the Howard County Times’ coverage of the fair here.